OK, I decided to do a little photo journal of bait making today. This bait is one I call "The Best Bait I Have Used And Can't Figure Out Why No Commercial Lure Maker Doesn't Make It," or just "Bacon Bait" for short.

Step 1

Get some bacon ends and pieces at the grocery store. I get mine from WalMart. The cheaper the better because it will have more fat.

Step 2

Grind the bait so it looks like burger, or sausage.

Step 3

(This is where the photos come in) Place ground bacon in a pot on medium heat and cook for about 20 minutes.



Step 4

After the ground meat cooks, add lard. I use about half as much as the bacon was, so if I used 4 pounds of bacon, I'd use 2 pounds of lard.



Step 5

Allow lard to melt thoroughly. The idea is that you want the meat to soak up as much fat as possible.

Step 6

Add honey, about a cup to 4 pounds of bacon. Stir in honey until thoroughly melted and mixed.



Step 6

Remove mixture from heat. Allow to cool. Add about 2 oz. of ground castor to each 4 pounds of bacon. You can also add fish oil, mink glands, Valerian, asephonitahoweveryouspellit, or whatever else floats your boat. Also add about 4 oz of glycerin to keep from freezing. I also add a little sodium benzoate to keep the mix from spoiling, but I prefer to make mine up no more than 2 weeks before the season starts. Otherwise, it will go rancid.

Step 7

Pour into containers and place in freezer




Step 8

Go catch some critters with it!!

Real similar to the bait recipe Tracy Truman posted a while back except he used 4 oz of castor and a pint of honey.

Ya, he's a big copycat that guy.

This stuff is no joke! Thanks for sharing it. It's as good as any commercial lure out there. In fact, can't say as I have seen any comercial bait or lure get the same response.

red onions, green peppers and some garlic I would eat it.

I made some up, and it was awful juicy...

When I make another batch, I plan to add some cracklins to soak up the juice...

I also added some liguid smoke to the mix to give a little more smoke smell...

Bacon just doesn't smell as smokey as it use to...

Bullet:

Let it sit over night before you add anything to it. The meat will soak up a lot of the fluid over night.

Lazarus is a WAY better trapper than that Tracy guy.

You know it!!!!!!

Sometimes I like salt as a preservative. I think that salt is an attractant all by itself, and even though it has almost no smell to humans, the animals will find it everytime.

Now, you tell me!!!!!!! LOL...

OK, on the next batch...

I also made some with ground sheep, we will see how that works..

Lazarus, did you ever try this in cages and if so how did it work for you?

What predators are you using this for is it just for fox or does it catch other critters

Well the cat's outta the bag now. And the fox are in the bag I'd say. As good as on the stretcher with this one.

Best part of making this bait is eating all the sherbert first, right?!?!

How much SB would be put in this amount?

After seeing the first couple of pics i thought this was a joke and he was just making himself a meal lol

At first, I thought you were making yourself a meal. Haha.

Thanks for sharing Lazarus. This needs to be archived!

Bought all my ingredients earlier this week to get mine made up. Gonna have a nice cooking party this weekend.

lazarus, did you eat all that sherbet this week?

Is there possibly some kind of preservative you could but in it to make it keep possibly indefinitely, or maybe just a year or so

I dunno... it's been said that dorito chips and two drops of muskrat urine per hay set is the secret mojo for high-volume fox trapping <inside joke>



but this 37" clear cherry male and a number of other old males in the heart of mating season stuck their paws out last winter for a closer whiff of bacon-grease concoction similar to listed in the OP. I have been taught directly by fox themselves out on my actual traplines that bait scents are equally effective as gland/urine scents, and this mix works well for coon in DPs, too.

Freeze it

Good one fire fly, sometimes my brain don't click to good

ttt

Is there any other additives you would recommend or just the beaver castor?

Go back and read Step 6 on the first page.

Yeah I read that but like any other glands or scents?

"You can also add fish oil, mink glands, Valerian, asephonitahoweveryouspellit, or whatever else floats your boat."

where is this concoction, what is OP??

never mind, what a dummy, ha

Yesterday, I took a quart of bacon grease, half gallon of fryer grease, a pint of fish brine, fried chicken scraps, a half cup of sugar, and a cup of fish meal, mixed it up. Went to a few of my locations, augured in a 2 inch hole 16 inches deep with an RK auger, filled the holes full of this, and we will see what happens.

Any guesses? Keep y'all posted.

I'll tell you exactly what will happen.....you'll catch me neck deep in that hole digging till I see a Chinese hand reach for me.

On the way home from work, I checked 3 of the 8 locations I baited, one wasn't touched, the other two were dug out big time, so far so good, fox, coyote and coon tracks.

Total 4 dug out out of 8 . The bacon grease mixture is good , I was just off location at the other bait holes.

The ones that were dug out were completely cratered to the bottom, mostly by fox. Also raccoon and coyote tracks again. One wolf track, but he just looked and did a territorial "kick back" took a couple more days till a fox dug that one out . The wolf probably peed nearby.
One active bait, I installed a burnt stick scent post 30 feet downwind and put a dab of Cavens fox gland lure on it. The fox dug up all the loose dirt where I would bed a trap . They also dug up spots that looked similar to the bait holes , that I never went near. They must be looking for bait in any loose, disturbed looking spot .

I would put out a trail cam if it wouldn't get stolen.

before the castor goes in id have a problem not digging in!

LMAO!

Faster.....I like your signature line.....better take traps too!

good idea! A friend of mine said you better take money. There is nothing worse than being at Heaven's gate and not being on the list. And then you find out there is a cover charge.
I copied your signature awhile back and pasted it on Face Book!

Your screen name reminds me of my drill instructor days at Parris Island. Seems I used the word 'faster' quite a bit.

LOL Paris island isn't that's where the boy Scouts have parties? JK

You'd sound funny telling a nurse you got beat up by a boy scout....lol. Heck, it's where all female Marines are trained too....it's an evil place...lol.

Well, I finally made some of this today and froze it. Wife is out of town, so I did lots of smelly things today.

I used the basic recipe (with 6 pounds of bacon), added a can of jack mack and about 12 oz of fish oil, 1/4 oz of vanilla, and 1/2 of liquid smoke.

It was pretty juicy--I think it was the fish oil and jack mack. But it did firm up once cool, and I was able to mix it up really good.

The dogs went nuts over it...

This is a great thread

How many Pounds of bacon endes would you need to make a batch just to try Im having a hard time thinking of how much Grease the bacon would produce? i saw bacon ends today i think it was about a 3 pound box for 6 bucks im thinking.

Well I wanted to not have leftovers so I doubled everything. I have no use for extra lard.

The ends and pieces come in 3 lb bags. Tracy said 1.5 lbs of lard for 3 lbs of bacon. With that and no other ingredients except the castor and honey, you will end up with about 2+ quarts of bait.

If you wanted a smaller amount, just save 1/3 of the bacon ends to eat and use 1 pound of lard. You'd want to reduce the honey, castor, etc. as well.

Hey guys this is a great post.
About how many dirt hole sets would a pint jar full make up.
Carson

Carson:

I use an old butter knife for my sets and just get a good wad on the knife blade at each set.

Two years ago I gave a quart to a buddy of mine and he liked it so much that by the end of the year, he said he was down to using a Q-tip to apply the bait to his dirt hole -- and he was still catching critters. So somewhere between a teaspoon full and Q-tip is about right.

I might add some moonshine or smokinaces

Thorpe had a recipe like that also. he used it in his campfire sets. poured it on a pourous stone or brick and he said they would bout wear there tongues off licking that stone..im sure that bacon bait would work, simple as it gets.

Are you guys still catching on this in freezing temps?

the wolves are on the move tearing apart all my sets! they ruined a couple cubbys tore about around all my footholds dug um out of the ground.... friken [Please excuse my language... I'm an idiot]!

ttt

"Step 1

Get some bacon ends and pieces at the grocery store. I get mine from WalMart. The cheaper the better because it will have more fat."

Have you seen it anywhere else, I checked at my local Wally World and they never heard of it. Thanks!

Disregard, I found some!

How much Sodium Benzoate for 6 lbs of bacon, 3 pounds of lard, honey and castor? Thanks!

You won't need it, bacon already has curing agents in it for the smoking process. Smoking pork is dangerous otherwise.

Pork is really hard to light up at first, but no more dangerous than smoking tobacco. Just sayin'.

One more question, why not just use sasauge instead of getting the bacon ends and pieces and then grinding it up like sausage, why not just use some cheap fatty sausage?

Because everyone likes Bacon

My wife made the mistake of taking me with her into Bed's, Bath and Beyond to find candles for Christmas gifts. You should have seen the looks I got whenI asked where to find the Bacon Scented Candles.